Traditional ruler has urged his districts and village heads on the need to enrol into the FCT Health insurance scheme, FHIS, and their families.
The Chief of Karu in Nigeria’s Capital City Abuja, HRH. Emmanuel Kyauta Yepwi, gave the charged during an advocacy visit to his palace organised by the Karu Area office of the FHIS in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
According to the Monarch, “All of you always running to me each time that your family member is sick, this is the end, if you don’t register, you are on your own. N13,500 is ok for all of you here and even if you don’t pay at once, there’s room for instalment payment through the FCT Microfinance bank.
“All of us here that are always falling seek or our children, I think we should take a look at this healthcare service, because before I can help you, you have to show me that you have registered with FHIS,” he added.
He advised those traditional rulers and their families who are frequent visitors to hospitals in a year to seek this method of health instead of always borrowing.
He commended the FHIS for setting up an office in his community and urged them to ensure that the Karu General Hospital is up and running so that his people can benefit from it.
The Sa’akaruyi noted that, “The facility we have in Karu here, no hospital in the FCT has it and they are just laying fallow for this long and becoming obsolete, I will talk to the MD again, tell her that if the FCT Minister of state is not listening to her, let her invite me we will go to meet the minister together.”
The Sa’akaruyi further directed the district heads and the village heads to take the message of FHIS enrolment down to their communities so as they can also help their community members especially the sick ones.
Earlier in his presentation the Director FHIS, Dr M. Ahmed-Danfulani who was represented by the Public Relations Officer FHIS, David Barau informed the Sa’akaruyi that they were in his palace on advocacy for some of the programmes and benefits of enrolling on the FHIS and also to let him know that the FHIS has an area office in his community as well as to sensitise them on the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund BHCF.
Mr. Barau added that, “To achieve this we have 2 main sectors of enrolment which are the formal and informal sectors, the formal sector is what most of you know; that is public servants, government workers and organised private sector like banks and big companies, they category of workers have their premium removed at source from the their salaries monthly, however most Nigerians don’t belong to the formal sector, so the FHIS has plan to cover Nigerians who do not belong to the formal sector and want to benefit.”
He reiterated that with only N13, 500 per annum, an individual from the informal sector will enjoy full healthcare benefits that are enjoyed by those that fall in the formal sector which includes free births, caesarean section hospitalization for up to 21 days and many surgeries.
Another member of the team Blessing Ticky also informed the palace that in order to simplify the payment for those unable to pay a lump sum of N13,500, the FHIS had signed an MOU with the FCT Microfinance Bank (FCTMFB) to enable the enrollees pay in instalments.
